One Shoe Blues, by Sandra Boynton, starring B.B. King - review

One Shoe Blues, by Sandra Boynton, starring B.B. King

This is Sandra Boynton's collaboration with B.B. King. You knew it had to happen. One beloved icon meets another. Let's just say - there are Converse high-tops involved, and that can't be bad.

So - I snatched this off the shelf today, and read it to myself while waiting to pick up the kids from school. Then I read it out loud to some 3rd graders while waiting for the 1st graders to arrive at dismissal (the 1st graders are always last). There is a song in this book: the song is called "One Shoe Blues". I sang the song to the 3rd graders. Did I know the melody? Well, no. There's sheet music in the back, but I figured - it's blues. You can make up blues. The kids enjoyed it, even though they rolled their eyes at my singing. The other parents were more charitable.

When we got home, we played the DVD. It was A. Dorable. Sock puppets and B.B. King singing about how he can't find his left shoe. (The shoe is on his foot.) B.B. King's mama hollers for him to look under the bed and in the closet. He says he did. She says did he look THOROUGHLY under the bed and in the closet. (B.B. King's mama has found herself dragged into the search for a missing item before, one surmises.) Set in a lovely little red shack, with curtains blowing and trees out the window, I loved the little movie. It's on YouTube, see what you think.

Oddly, the DVD was not that well received by the 1st graders and 3rd graders in attendance. I'm guessing they weren't particularly impressed by B.B. King. They don't know a blues legend when they see one. Why would they? But I was very enthusiastic, and played the thing twice, and was happy to answer the question, "What ARE blues, anyway?"

And, like the celebrity appearances on Sesame Street, I believe that such was Sandra Boynton's sneaky little plan. B.B. King is the bait to get the parents into the room, and after watching together, maybe there's more conversation. Or maybe not. Maybe Sandra Boynton just wanted to hear B.B. King sit in a chair and play her song. Nothing wrong with that, either.

Comments

[christian louboutin]

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